Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 74 - Sixty-Five: Proverbs

Chapter 74: Chapter Sixty-Five: Proverbs

After lunch, around two in the afternoon, Malin accompanied by Faye and Maya set out—the National Publishing House had a scheduled discussion at three forty. Before that, Malin and Faye were to visit the snack shop and tool shop they co-owned to check on business.

Indeed, Malin had partnered with Faye in opening two shops: one was a snack shop selling various delicious treats from Malin’s memory, and the other was a tool shop offering items not usually found on the market, such as climbing picks with rock-breaking effects, St. George physics swords with durability effects, revolver grips with a matte finish, barrels of heavy caliber long guns and fine steel short gun barrels, and mechanical sights of competition-grade precision.

The snack shop was a 30% venture for Malin and 70% for Faye, whereas the tool shop was the opposite, with Malin holding 70% and Faye 30%.

The reason for this was that in the snack business, Malin merely contributed a few ideas and nothing more, while many items in the tool shop were created based on the design drawings Malin provided.

By the way, the tool shop employed a team of Dwarven artisans led by a master craftsman, who happened to be the father of Malin’s classmate Xingyan, named Bluesteel Iron Anvil.

If you’ve forgotten who Xingyan is, no worries—it’s enough to remember that she’s a Northern Dwarf without a beard but still a robust dwarven beauty (or rather, a handsome youth).

The snack shop was located to the south of the city, close to the rented accommodation, making it the first stop. As a hands-off shopkeeper, Malin’s usual visits were simply to buy sticky rice snacks—the sticky rice had been brought over from Thainan. Although it was not cultivated by local farmers, Malin still managed to collect it through the Church. Furthermore, Malin had asked shipping groups to fetch some seeds from Thainan and hired some farmers to grow them.

Besides being a Church member’s initiative, which ensured meticulous care by the farmers, the Goddess of Harvest Church’s expertise in farming, combined with Faye’s curiosity about glutinous rice cakes, led her to hire a couple of Druid Apprentices. Consequently, the crop yield was good, prompting Faye to buy a piece of land near her villa to construct a granary and windmill.

Malin believed that by next year at the latest, the raw materials for glutinous rice cakes would be continuously available for local sale.

As for the present, sales were still modest, with the mild taste (Malin only used honey and osmanthus) appealing mainly to Thanan visitors and those with a preference for blander flavors.

Nevertheless, soft jerky was more popular among customers, who preferred to call it soft meat snacks.

Malin tailored these to Carterburg people’s tastes, making them quite popular. Of course, there was also meat floss production. Compared to the rice snacks, meat was something Carterburg never lacked—while hides could still be used for spellcasting materials, there was an abundance of meat from various creatures, and Faye had connections to convince the confused breeders to deliver their meat to the store.

It was simpler than having them pay to dispose of the surplus, unsellable rotten meat.

For safety, Malin persuaded Faye to enter into exclusive contracts with these breeders. Here, Malin had to commend the Church of Justice: aside from using fists to persuade Spirits and those of a different kind, the God of Justice also made contributions to the field of law. The contract Malin produced was briefly reviewed by a Church of Justice official, who promptly recognized its legality.

With the breeders bound to the chariot providing the meat, Malin didn’t have to worry about someone coming out to breach that particular contract.

As for the chance of a breeder tearing up the contract and challenging him, well, that was not impossible—as long as they could defeat the punitive troops sent by the Church of Justice to uphold the legitimacy of the contracting parties.

If they couldn’t, whether they were dragons coiling or tigers lying down, Malin didn’t care if they were lords or not—under the precepts of the Church of Justice, all beings are equal.

Of course, overall, the pastry shop was doing quite well, and Malin was able to take home about a thousand in profit sharing each month—this was after Malin and Faye respectively took out 30% and 20% of the profits for maintaining the shop’s turnover.

The store was entrusted to the senior apprentices of the Church of the God of Commerce to manage, which was a very rare learning opportunity. The apprentices of the Church of the God of Commerce have a common Sequence called Merchant, with level ten being an Apprentice and level nine a Clerk. According to the "performance law," the level nine apprentices were really vying to work there.

Because the business was so good, according to them, the experience and insights they gained from working a single day here were more than what they could get from working half a month in other stores.

So Malin simply let these guys draw lots to arrange shifts every day—otherwise, one day the members of the Church of the God of Commerce would literally beat each other’s brains into a dog’s brain.

And Malin’s choice also made the members of the Church of the God of Commerce very satisfied—they were afraid too. Without the lottery system in place, their little buggers got into a fight every week; if they weren’t fighting, even better, their private alliances were breathtaking.

Therefore, apart from the clerks, the manager positions were also taken by the recommended senior students from the Church. These were level eight managers, and because there were very few staff (usually, the Merchant Sequence tops at level five and is generally used as a sub-Sequence), there weren’t the same kind of problems as with level nine.

So when all the owners of the store came over, the manager directly took out the account book and reported to Faye line by line.

Malin wasn’t afraid of them playing tricks; in addition to the lottery system, all clerks and managers had to sign loyalty contracts, meaning that they owed a day of loyalty for every day they worked there. Malin did not fear them causing trouble after they left. They would simply need to be tough enough to catch the nailed wooden stick in Malin’s hand.

As for working here, they must give their loyalty. If someone wanted to embezzle or cook the books, they’d just be strung up and beaten.

As a member of the Church of the Goddess of Harvest, Malin naturally didn’t need to worry about the bishops and mentors of the Church of the God of Commerce thinking he was being too severe—"With you cunning and shrewd bunch, this is exactly what should be done, and besides, Faye and I also have Old Hoffman and His Majesty the King backing us. What’s there to fear?"

Malin bought a bag of dried fish using the store’s internal employee card, and while sitting next to Faye and listening in, he fed his little sister, Maya. Maya ate happily, Malin fed her with ease, and Faye listened with comfort.

"I have completely understood now, please continue to work hard," Faye confirmed there weren’t any problems with the accounts in the account book and walked towards the northern part of the city with Malin to the tool shop.

"I have made a lot of money with you in the past half year," Faye was very happy, and her mood had been quite good in the recent months.

It made sense, after all; who would frown when there was money to be made?

Malin held his sister’s hand with one hand and greeted the passing congregants with the other before turning his head to look at Faye, smiling and extending his free hand: "Stick with me, and we’ll make even more money in the future. What do you say?"

Faye thought about it and smiled, placing her hand in Malin’s.

Without using words, the girl’s smile was a somewhat shy response to the action.